As a homeowners association (HOA) board member, it is your duty to approve of most renovations that take place within your community. However, your HOA should be cautious with regards to restricting the installation or use of solar panels. Florida’s Solar Rights Act protects homeowners who wish to install solar panels on their property.
In this article, we will be discussing this law and what it means for HOAs.
The Florida Solar Rights Act:
As stipulated by Florida Statute 163.04, HOAs are forbidden from prohibiting the installation of solar panels on Florida buildings.
Specifically, the law states:
A property owner may not be denied permission to install solar collectors or other energy devices by ANY entity granted the power or right in any deed restriction, covenant, declaration, or similar binding agreement to approve, forbid, control, or direct alteration of property with respect to residential dwellings and within the boundaries of a condominium unit.
Not only is your HOA not allowed to restrict the installation of solar panels, but it is also prohibited from restricting the installation of energy devices of any kind.
What Can HOAs Do?
While your HOA can’t prohibit solar panel installation, it does have a voice. A review board or committee can determine the specific roof location on which the panels are to be installed as long is it is “within an orientation to the South or within 45° east or west of due south, (which is what Solar installers seek for installation, South first) if such determination does not impair the effective operation of the solar collectors.” Essentially, your HOA can choose where the solar panels go as long as it does not interfere with the system’s performance.
Gulf Power began installing new solar panels at the Cotton Creek Solar Energy Center and Blue Springs Solar Energy Center in Florida’s Escambia and Jackson Counties last week, taking the first steps in a solar expansion that will culminate in 600,000 new panels for the state in that region.
The sites will require around 500 acres each for the panels, to provide nearly 150 MW of capacity. When generation begins early next year, this should have the equivalent effect of powering 30,000 homes and removing 28,000 emissions-producing vehicles from the road annually. The move comes as part of a larger effort by Florida Power & Light, Gulf Power’s parent company.
“With every panel installed, we are ushering in a more sustainable future for Florida by delivering cleaner energy while increasing reliability for our customers,” Mike Spoor, Gulf Power vice president, said. “With each solar farm, we build we are also reducing our carbon footprint and providing cleaner air for our region, ensuring we keep Northwest Florida beautiful for generations to come, while also benefitting the local economy with the contribution of hundreds of thousands of additional tax dollars.”
The Cotton Creek and Blue Springs solar energy centers will join more than 40 other solar energy centers by FPL. Cotton Creek will hold a distinction as Gulf Power’s first owned and operated solar energy center in Escambia County. Posting Note. Gulf Power’s rates will soon increase, as the two companies are blended.
Source: Chris Galford, dailyenergyinsider.com, (article truncated for salient material) Image credit: Blue Springs Solar Energy Center
Jinko Solar has made waves around the solar community with news of its world record. The company has broken the world record for bifacial modules conversion efficiency.This achievement is significant not only as a standalone but for the secondary benefits it is set to deliver the solar industry.
The achievement
Announcing the maximum conversion efficiency of its bifacial solar modules reached 22.49%, Jinko Solar’s feat sets a new industry standard for the efficiency of mass-produced solar cells. Jinko Solar was successful in improving efficiency for its mass-produced modules by applying newly developed ARC and advanced metallization technologies and proven proprietary technologies to high-efficient cell design.
This news is exciting by itself, but even more so when the wider benefits are factored in.
The ancillary benefits for the industry
This achievement comes at a particularly exciting time for the solar industry around the world as it edges closer and closer to obtaining grid parity. High-efficiency modules help to reduce the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) and help drive the industry closer to grid parity globally. This has been a longstanding goal and one that this year has seen with new data reveal very promising progress.
Although true a sizeable gap still remains between the world’s most competitive markets—such as India, Italy, and France—and others, ultimately the cost of solar continues to decline. And in relative terms—given the youth of the industry and the rapidly growing popularity its been enjoying across many jurisdictions—the speed at which these costs have visibly lowered across many markets in just a few short years has indeed been akin to a price crash.
The road ahead from here
Now such progress, joined by a new world record-setting feat by Jinko Solar is surely welcome news to their team, and to so many of us around the world keen for further innovation in the industry.
Source: solarmagazine.com, Ed Kennedy, Jinko Solar (Article truncated for salient information)
The respective industries surrounding renewable energy sources commonly exist in an odd dynamic. On the one hand, there’s the industry-wide recognition that the greater uptake of green energy technology among solar, hydro, wind, and other renewable sources is beneficial to all. Not only those in the green energy sector but all people across the world.
Nonetheless, there can also be fierce competition between the industries. Especially when multiple forms of renewable energy could be viable for a new government plan or private investment. Just as solar is undoubtedly a leading renewable energy source, so too do other forms bring their own advantages alongside potential drawbacks. So when it comes to comparing the value between solar and hydro energy, which one comes out on top?
Shining a light on solar
Solar is enticing to public planners seeking a renewable energy resource that’s affordable, long-lasting, and essentially perpetual. Yes, some space enthusiasts like to muse the sun is not an eternal resource and will eventually die in five billion years. But for those of us currently proceeding on through a human lifetime with more immediate concerns, we can take it as given the sun’s energy is limitless. Similarly, the lead drawback to solar is this need for sunshine.
Although it’s a very manageable drawback—after all, Mediterranean nations like Portugal, Spain, and France will always be among the sunniest nations on Earth even if an occasional summer sees more grey clouds on average. The same challenge factors into public projects on a larger scale.
On a large scale, solar power can provide a real size advantage. A 2019 study held all existing hydropower sources in the United States (U.S.) could be replaced by solar power, and do so requiring just 13% of the space. Obviously, for a country like the U.S. and nations of a similar landmass, the notion of undoing existing renewable energy as opposed to adding more to the grid would be a misstep. But although hydropower energy has been in operation since the world’s first plant opened in Wisconsin in 1882, this finding in this era does show where nations seek green energy but also find maritime space is at a premium, the growing strength of solar offers a strong alternative.
What hydro offers
Like solar, hydro harnesses the power of nature to generate energy. Alongside the capacity for rivers and other waterways to churn more reliably day in and day out—something solar cannot always guarantee—there’s also the capacity to generate energy at night. Given the moon can’t offer the energy generation that the sun provides solar panels, anyone seeking to make use of the sun’s energy at night from solar technology will have to rely on power stored in a solar battery.
While hydro has some advantages over solar, it also has its own vulnerabilities.
A drought can diminish a river’s flow, floods can damage installations, and the installation itself can be a far more complex process when factoring in the environmental impact. Although this can be a consideration with large-scale solar projects too, the installment of a dam can have a colossal impact on the surrounding ecosystem if not properly pursued. Such vulnerabilities can, of course, be taken into account when civic planners devise a hydro project, but it’s not always possible to anticipate every hazard—like natural disasters that can arrive with little notice, and savage all in its path.
Combining solar and hydro power
Just as both these technologies remain young compared to fossil fuels, the ambitions to devise projects that more powerfully combine these two remain in development. Nonetheless, already we have a glimpse of the promise these two technologies could offer an array of countries around the world when combined.
The Kidston Pumped Storage Project in Queensland, Australia is pioneering. Building a hybrid hydro and solar energy site on the site of a former gold mine. The existing geography of the site that the mine offers will see two different pits at varying heights. In times of high demand, water will be driven downwards from the upper reservoir to the lower reservoir generating energy. In times of decreased demand, renewable energy sources will pump the water back up to the upper reservoir.
The surrounding solar site will benefit from this immensely. As whenever there is variation in the solar energy generated, the hydro power on-site can supplement it. Helping deliver a steady and consistent flow of energy to the network. Upon completion, it is projected to generate up to 330MW of energy into the national market and be a beacon of what’s possible when combining the two sources. Especially to other nations with a long history of mining, and a desire to make new use of decommissioned pits.
Beyond Kidston exclusively, there’s also, of course, the growing visibility of floating solar panel installations around the world. Although floating solar tech has been on the renewable energy scene since 2008—and nations like Japan and China have been keen adopters of the technology since—a number of nations around the world like the U.S. have been slower to harness this option. This notwithstanding, with a number of projects globally serving as proof positive of this solar-hydro combo, an uptick in floating solar panel installations can be expected heading into the 2020s.
At present, the capacity for a community to increase its energy security and reduce its reliance on fossil fuels is arguably best done with solar.
The ease in which solar panels can be erected on residential homes and businesses contrasts with the impossible prospect of seeking to see every citizen begin their own quest for energy independence via hydro power. Put simply, we’ll see governments prioritize their energy projects with reference to existing demand for solar among their citizens when compared alongside the wealth of natural resources their waterways and oceans can offer. In the interim, all can watch on with interest the Kidston project, with hope and an aspiration to see more combinations of solar and hydro in renewable energy projects going forward.
Source: Ed Kennedy, solarmagazine.com (Article truncated for salient aspects)
New wind and solar power projects in China, Europe, and the US spurred a 45% rise in the rate of new capacity.
The world’s renewable energy industry grew at its fastest pace since 1999 last year, despite the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, and may have established a standard for growth in the future, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
The global energy watchdog revealed that the delivery of renewable energy projects, including windfarms and solar power projects, grew by 45% last year in a steep change for the global industry.
Wind power capacity doubled over the last year, while solar power grew by almost 50% more than its growth before the pandemic, due to the growing appetite for clean energy from governments and corporations.
The clean energy boom has prompted the IEA to revise its renewable energy forecasts for the coming years up by about 25% from its previous growth estimates due to the faster than expected expansion of renewables in China, Europe, and the US.
Fatih Birol, the executive director of the IEA, said governments need to “build on this promising momentum” by putting in place policies that “encourage greater investment in solar and wind, in the additional grid infrastructure they will require, and in other key renewable technologies such as hydropower, bioenergy and geothermal”.
“A massive expansion of clean electricity is essential to giving the world a chance of achieving its net zero goals,” Birol added.
China remains at the heart of the renewable energy industry’s growth after accounting for more than 40% of the global growth in the market for the last few years. It is also one of the largest suppliers of the raw materials needed to make wind turbines and solar panels including silicon, glass, steel, copper, and other rare earth materials.
However, China is also the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases because of its use of coal-fired power plants to meet the country’s rising energy demand.
The country’s president, Xi Jinping, has pledged that China will become carbon neutral by 2060, but experts have warned that it will need to develop enough renewable energy to shut down nearly 600 of its coal-fired power plants in the next 10 years to meet this target.
The passing of a key industry deadline for state subsidies in China is expected to cause the country’s renewable energy growth to slow in the years ahead. But the IEA believes booming demand for clean energy across Europe and the US will keep the global industry’s annual growth close to last year’s level.
Heymi Bahar, the IEA’s lead author of the report, described last year’s renewables boom as “unprecedented” because although it matched the rate last seen in 1999 the industry has become far larger in the last two decades.
He said record levels of government auctions for new renewable energy projects combined with a rising number of companies seeking to switch to renewables powered the “exceptional increase”, which is set to become “the new normal for renewable energy”.
“The momentum is there from business and government,” he added.
The IEA’s latest forecasts do not take into account the new US president, Joe Biden, whose administration is expected to spur an even faster rate of renewables growth. Biden has pledged to cut US emissions by half in the next 10 years.
In the UK, the growth of the offshore wind industry is forecast to account for a quarter of the world’s offshore wind capacity by 2022, making it the only country in the world to have more wind power generated off its coast than on its land.
The U.S. Spacewalk Outside The International Space Station Was Postponed Due to A Medical Issue with Astronaut Vande Hei.
The U.S. spacewalk outside the International Space Station originally planned for Tuesday, Aug. 24 with NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide has been postponed due to a minor medical issue involving Vande Hei. This issue is not a medical emergency.
The spacewalk is not time-sensitive and crew members are continuing to move forward with other station work and activities.
Teams are assessing the next available opportunity to conduct the spacewalk following the SpaceX CRS-23 cargo resupply launch planned for Aug. 28 and upcoming Russian spacewalks.
The preview briefing on Aug. 23 is also being rescheduled and will be announced at a later date.
Due to the unforeseen illness of one of the Astronauts, the scheduled Space Walk has been postponed. We at Smart Energy will keep our readers updated as events unfold. Stay bookmarked to our blog.
Two astronauts will venture outside the International Space Station Tuesday, Aug. 24th, for a spacewalk to install a support bracket in preparation for future installation of the orbiting laboratory’s third new solar array.
NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and astronaut Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will install a support bracket, called a modification kit, on the inward port side of the station’s backbone truss structure in a position known as P4, which is closest to the station’s pressurized living space.
The kit prepares the site for future installation and deployment of the third of six new “International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Arrays“ (iROSA) to upgrade one of the station’s eight power channels known as 4A, which provides partial power to the U.S. Laboratory, the Harmony module, and the Columbus module.
The modification kit will be attached to the mast canister at the base of the original solar arrays.
The crew will also replace a device that measures the electrical charging potential of the arrays and associated surfaces in its vicinity, called a floating-point measurement unit, on a separate truss.
Live coverage of the spacewalk will begin at 7 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, Aug. 24, with the crew members scheduled to exit the station’s Quest airlock around 8:30 a.m. The spacewalk will last approximately 6 hours and 50 minutes.
Hoshide will serve as extravehicular crew member one (EV1), with red stripes on his spacesuit, while Vande Hei will be extravehicular crew member two (EV2), with an unmarked suit.
This will be the fourth spacewalk for Hoshide, the fifth spacewalk for Vande Hei, and the station’s 242nd in support of assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.
The spacewalk follows three other recent ones to install the first pair of new iROSA arrays.
On June 16, Kimbrough and Pesquet moved the first to a mounting bracket on the 2B power channel on the port 6 truss, where it was secured in its folded configuration.
On June 20, the duo returned to the 2B power channel to complete installation and deployment. The astronauts completed the installation and deployment of the second of the six new arrays in a spacewalk on June 25.
The station’s original solar arrays are functioning well, but have begun to show signs of degradation, which was expected, as they were designed for about a 15-year service life (space, is harder on their lifespans).
The first pair of original solar arrays were deployed in December 2000 and have been powering the station for more than 20 years, exceeding expectations.
They are now augmented with the first pair of iROSAs positioned in front of them. When all six of the new arrays are in place, the station’s total available power will increase from 160 kilowatts to a maximum of 215.
The same roll-out solar array design will be used to power elements of Gateway, a new lunar-orbiting outpost in development by NASA’s commercial and international partners.
In November 2020, the International Space Station surpassed its 20-year milestone of continuous human presence, providing opportunities for unique research and technology demonstrations that help prepare for long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars and also improve life on Earth.
Over that time, 244 people from 19 countries have visited the orbiting laboratory that has hosted nearly 3,000 research investigations from researchers in 108 countries and areas.
It is time for electric utilities to reinvent themselves with a new business model, owning rooftop solar rather than solar farms.
Telephone companies reinvented themselves in the last couple of decades when mobile phones wiped out the pay phone and most residential landline business. The electric industry must adapt, in the same way. Distributing power in the form of rooftop and community solar, coupled with batteries, should provide a considerable portion of our energy needs.
Homes, apartments, condominiums, schools, churches, warehouses, and retail stores could have solar on their roofs and batteries on the wall. Parking lots could be covered with solar to provide power, shade cars, and charge electric vehicles; lakes and retention ponds could have floating areas of community solar for those that can’t have rooftop solar.
Utilities understand that they must move to renewable energy, because of climate change and economics. Solar is more affordable than fossil fuel in the long term. This is a giant leap, but utilities are still wed to the industrial concept of the last century. Their model is to have centralized power production controlled by utilities with large transmission lines moving the power to cities and distribution lines crisscrossing the network of end users.
We should applaud the Orlando Utilities Commission for planning to go “Net Zero” by 2050 in their adopted Electric Integrated Resource Plan (EIRP).
The plan developed by Siemens estimates that providing enough power would “require 50,000 acres of land or, for scale and context, approximately 69% of the land area of the City of Orlando,” If Orlando is a model for the rest of Florida, almost all rural land in Florida will be solar farms.
This would also mean that many thousands of miles of new electric transmission lines will crisscross Florida on new rights-of-way. These are the huge metal structures that nobody wants near their home and are potential hazards during hurricanes. Do you remember Joni Mitchell’s 1970s song “Big Yellow Taxi”, in which the first line was, “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot”? Well, change the parking lot to a solar farm.
Florida utilities recognized that they need huge areas of land and got the Legislature to pass and the governor signs a Renewable Energy bill that requires solar facilities to be a permitted use in all agricultural land use categories in a local government’s comprehensive plan and all agricultural zoning districts within an unincorporated area. The law means that citizens or local government cannot prohibit solar farms in rural or agricultural areas.
Solar United Neighbors of Florida, a nonprofit, facilitated 2,000 homeowners who collectively added 20 megawatts of solar power in five years via 70 co-ops. Through the co-ops, homeowners and businesses pay for solar and batteries to be installed on their property. Federal tax credits encourage people to add solar and batteries; nonprofits should have access to rebates similar to the tax credits. This, however, will still be a small fraction of the potential for rooftop solar in Florida.
Rooftop solar will not put electric utilities out of business.
Because the supply of electricity will be close to the consumer there will be less need for big transmission lines and huge solar farms. Having solar and batteries distributed throughout the service territory will limit outages from hurricanes. Intermittent clouds that are a problem for large solar farms will be mitigated by the disbursement of roof-top solar.
Yes, there will be some need for large solar farms to power cities. High-rise buildings, tree-shaded properties, manufactured houses and other atypical properties won’t be able to produce substantial power with solar, but they can still house batteries.
The cheapest kilowatt hour is the one not needed. In the next couple of years, there will be a lot of money flowing from the federal government for energy efficiency. The utilities should set up energy-efficiency businesses to use this money and help homeowners, renters, commercial property owners, and managers end the waste of electricity and decrease the need for solar farms.
If the only tool available is a hammer, every problem will look like a nail. If the only tool electric utilities seem to have is centralized power production sent via high-voltage transmission lines, then rural Florida will look like glass skyscrapers laying down in a field. Go solar — but use a rooftop model first.
Source: Michael Cohen,(co-founder of Solar United Neighbors of Florida), orlandosentinel.com
A new report explores who is behind efforts to curb distributed energy and solar deployment. In this part, we look at policy and regulatory recommendations highlighted by the authors as a playbook to fight against anti-solar efforts, and how parties can curb campaigns before they begin.
Across the country, on a national, state, and even local level, utilities and corporations have used their political power, deep pockets and other avenues of influence to support legislation and institute policies intended on striking down the efficacy of distributed generation, according to a report released by Environment America, the Frontier Group, and the United States Public Interest Research Group Education Fund.
And while many of these efforts have been successful to some degree, opponents of solar are not nearly batting 1.000. Previous entries in this series have included studies of specific campaigns that have failed to weaken rooftop solar, specifically Florida’s Amendment 1 in 2016. In our final examination of this report, pv magazine looks at the policy and regulatory actions that the authors believe can be effective tools to stop anti-solar efforts.
Being proactive The first recommendation is to be iron-willed. Basically, net metering and other pro-distributed generation policies can’t come under attack if those attacks are discouraged from the start.
The report calls on decision makers to reject caps, restrictions on or elimination of net metering; rollbacks or elimination of state renewable energy standards; unfair or discriminatory charges or tariffs on solar power system owners; utility rate structures that penalize or discourage solar installation; and broader, unneeded regulatory burdens on solar energy.
These recommendations assume that the decision makers themselves support residential solar.
Strong leadership is needed Outside of blocking attempts to discourage the resource, those in positions of power should further leverage their influence to promote policies that support the growth of rooftop solar, according to the authors.
Lawmakers must consider the full set of benefits distributed solar energy brings to the grid, ratepayers, and to society when making policy decisions. Additional policy recommendations include but aren’t limited to:
Implementing strong net metering and interconnection standards, which enable many customers to meet their own electricity needs with solar power
Supporting community solar projects and virtual net metering, which can expand public access to solar power
Enacting or expanding solar carve-outs and renewable electricity standards
Enabling financing mechanisms to allow for greater solar access for businesses and residents
Allowing companies that are not utilities to sell or lease solar to residents and businesses
Investing wisely in making the electric grid more intelligent, which will facilitate a greater role for distributed sources of energy such as solar power
For the energy transition to be a successful one, distributed generation will have a major role to play, and the authors of the report said that people holding positions of power are duty-bound to drive solar-friendly policies and advocacy.
While this is where the report ends, battles still rage daily against anti-solar policies and groups that look to undermine the resource. Moreover, there have been countless fights that this report was unable to cover, as there certainly will be in the future. If you are involved in or would like to bring attention to an ongoing or upcoming attack on distributed generation, reach out, and your testimony can help to continue this series.
Residents of a Florida continuing care retirement community saw their drive for sustainable energy become a reality with the recent installation of solar panels on the community’s roof.
Oak Hammock at the University of Florida in Gainesville is funding the $603,000 project, which will install 682 solar panels at the community. The CCRC is thought to be the only one in the state to invest in solar panel energy. The panels are expected to generate $50,000 in annual savings on the community’s $1 million electric bill.
Planning began four years ago when a group of residents led by the late Lee Bidgood, a former chemical engineer, created a committee to research the feasibility of solar power at the community. Committee members analyzed 12 months of billing data and collected information from the Florida Department of Energy and the Florida Solar Energy Center in Cocoa. They presented their proposal to the Oak Hammock Board of Directors Finance Committee in October 2019.
“When I pitched the project to the Oak Hammock board, I started by saying that this was a good investment, it’s the right time to do this, it’s a powerful marketing tool and, finally, it’s the right thing to do,” said Bill Rossi, one of the residents who led the project.
Nelson Logan, another resident and former engineer on the project, was so passionate about it that he offered to put up his own money and solicit donations.
“In today’s society, where everyone is talking about how we have to have sustainable energy, we really have to face up to the fact that the weather on this planet is changing,” Rossi said. “We are doing something about it. We can do our part.”
The board approved the solar project in February 2020. Oak Hammock Chief Financial Officer Andrew Davey and then-CEO Jeff Hagan selected Gainesville-based Solar Impact to install the panels.
After a new roof was installed on the community’s Building 2 in May, Solar Impact took roof measurements to lay out the solar array, which holds the panels in place. Two weeks later, more than 300 footings were placed on top of the roof, followed by the rails where the solar panels sit. July 1, 13 pallets of panels were lifted onto the roof. Solar Impact then completed the wire management installation.
Solar panels will be installed on the communities two largest buildings — Buildings 1 and 2. The first solar array, which houses 24 of the 682 solar panels, was installed on Building 2 during a ceremony on July 20. Installation should be completed this month, according to Oak Hammock.
“Our solar panel design will generate about 5% of our electrical consumption,” said resident John Paul, a UF engineering alumnus. “That doesn’t sound like much, except our electric bill is about $1 million a year, and with the tariffs continuing to go up, so will our bill. That’s a savings of about $50,000 a year, and that will escalate over time.”
With the life of a solar panel at between 25 and 30 years, Paul said, the solar panels will pay for themselves and reduce Oak Hammock’s electrical bill “all while doing the right thing.”
“It was the residents who explored sustainable energy at Oak Hammock, and that speaks to the community we have,” Paul said. “To us, Oak Hammock is a community.”
